Edible Mushrooms
Edible mushrooms are highly nutritious, high in essential amino acids and are with
absolutely nil or less fat content. There is no cholesterol in them; they are easily digestible due
to the presence of high fiber content, and can be compared with meat in their nutritional value.
Edible mushrooms are often grouped along with vegetables and known as ‘Meat of the
Vegetable World’.
Edible mushrooms are easy to cultivate. While cultivating edible mushrooms, a number
of substrate materials may be used as their food materials such as paddy straw, saw dust, cotton
waste, cocoa bean shell, and wooden logs. Most of the edible mushrooms like milky
mushrooms, shiitake, Enoki, oyster mushrooms, paddy straw mushrooms, shaggy manes, Maitake mushrooms etc are members of the order Agaricales. They are suited for home
growing as well as for commercial production. A list of the major edible mushrooms is given
below:
1 Milky Mushrooms (Calocybe indica)
2 Paddy Straw Mushrooms (Volvariella volvacea)
3 White Button Mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus)
4 The Brown Mushrooms (Agaricus bisporous Brown strain)
5 Shiitake Mushrooms (Lentinula edodes)
6 Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp)
7 Enoki Mushrooms (Flammulina velutipes)
8 Maitake Mushrooms (Grifola frondosa)
9 Morel Mushrooms (Morchella esculenta) 10 Chanterelle Mushrooms (Cantharellus cibarius)